Alan Garner (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales.
In 2012, he finally published a third book in the Weirdstone trilogy, Boneland. ==Biography== ===Early life: 1934–56=== Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in Congleton, Cheshire, on 17 October 1934.
Thus, he decided to pursue the study of Classics at Magdalen College, Oxford, passing his entrance exams in January 1953; at the time he had thoughts of becoming a professional academic.
In 1955, he joined the university theatrical society, playing the role of Mark Antony in a performance of William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra where he co-starred alongside Dudley Moore and where Kenneth Baker was the stage manager.
In August 1956, he decided that he wished to devote himself to novel writing, and decided to abandon his university education without taking a degree; he left Oxford in late 1956.
In the late nineteenth century the Hall had been divided into two agricultural labourers' cottages, but Garner was able to purchase the second for £150 about a year later; he proceeded to knock down the dividing walls and convert both halves back into a single home. Garner had begun writing his first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: A Tale of Alderley, in September 1956.
Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then briefly at Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern Period (circa 1590) building known as Toad Hall.
He nevertheless felt that the academic rigour which he learned during his university studies has remained "a permanent strength through all my life". ===The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath: 1957–64=== Aged 22, Garner was out cycling when he came across a hand-painted sign announcing that an agricultural cottage in Toad Hall – a Late Medieval building situated in Blackden, seven miles from Alderley Edge – was on sale for £510.
Although he personally could not afford it, he was lent the money by the local Oddfellow lodge, enabling him to purchase and move into the cottage in June 1957.
His first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, was published in 1960.
However Boneland, the conclusion to the sequence, was belatedly published in August 2012. ===Elidor, The Owl Service and Red Shift: 1964–73=== In 1962 Garner began work on a radio play named Elidor, which would result in the completion of a novel of the same name.
However Boneland, the conclusion to the sequence, was belatedly published in August 2012. ===Elidor, The Owl Service and Red Shift: 1964–73=== In 1962 Garner began work on a radio play named Elidor, which would result in the completion of a novel of the same name.
In 1972 he married for a second time, this time to Griselda Greaves, a teacher and critic with whom he had two children.
Garner was the sole runner-up for the writing award in 1978. Garner was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature in the 2001 New Year's Honours list.
This he explains by the sense of anger he felt on reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight": the footnotes would not have been needed by his father. In 1981, the literary critic Neil Philip published an analysis of Garner's novels as A Fine Anger, which was based on his doctoral thesis, produced for the University of London in 1980.
This he explains by the sense of anger he felt on reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight": the footnotes would not have been needed by his father. In 1981, the literary critic Neil Philip published an analysis of Garner's novels as A Fine Anger, which was based on his doctoral thesis, produced for the University of London in 1980.
In a 1989 interview, Garner stated that he had left scope for a third book following the adventures of Colin and Susan, envisioning a trilogy, but that he had intentionally decided not to write it, instead moving on to write something different.
Each focused on a day in the life of a child in the Garner family, each from a different generation. In a 1989 interview, Garner noted that although writing The Stone Book Quartet had been "exhausting", it had been "the most rewarding of everything" he'd done to date.
In this study he noted that "The Stone Book quartet marks a watershed in Garner's writing career, and provides a suitable moment for an evaluation of his work thus far." ===Strandloper, Thursbitch and Boneland: 1995–present=== In 1996, Garner's novel Strandloper was published.
In this study he noted that "The Stone Book quartet marks a watershed in Garner's writing career, and provides a suitable moment for an evaluation of his work thus far." ===Strandloper, Thursbitch and Boneland: 1995–present=== In 1996, Garner's novel Strandloper was published.
Garner was the sole runner-up for the writing award in 1978. Garner was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature in the 2001 New Year's Honours list.
would render sterile the existing work, the life that produced it, and bring about my artistic and spiritual death" and felt unable to comply. Garner's novel Thursbitch was published in 2003.
He received the British Fantasy Society's occasional Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2003 and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2012.
In January 2011, the University of Warwick awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters ([causa]).
In 2012, he finally published a third book in the Weirdstone trilogy, Boneland. ==Biography== ===Early life: 1934–56=== Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in Congleton, Cheshire, on 17 October 1934.
However Boneland, the conclusion to the sequence, was belatedly published in August 2012. ===Elidor, The Owl Service and Red Shift: 1964–73=== In 1962 Garner began work on a radio play named Elidor, which would result in the completion of a novel of the same name.
Garner's novel, Boneland, was published in 2012, nominally completing a trilogy begun some 50 years earlier with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. ===Where Shall We Run To? 2018=== In August 2018 Garner published his only set of memoirs, Where Shall We Run To?, which describes his childhood during the Second World War. ==Personal life== With his first wife Ann Cook he had three children.
He received the British Fantasy Society's occasional Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2003 and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2012.
In a 2014 interview conducted with Mike Pitts for British Archaeology magazine, Garner stated that "I don't have anything to do with the literary world.
Garner's novel, Boneland, was published in 2012, nominally completing a trilogy begun some 50 years earlier with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. ===Where Shall We Run To? 2018=== In August 2018 Garner published his only set of memoirs, Where Shall We Run To?, which describes his childhood during the Second World War. ==Personal life== With his first wife Ann Cook he had three children.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05